Resolution of Text Marketing Suit in Texas Offers 'Powerful Ammunition': Lawyer
A broadening of Texas' version of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act earlier this year didn't "explicitly carve out a defense on the basis of consent," Mintz class-action lawyer Esteban Morales wrote last week. Even businesses that send text messages with…
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otherwise compliant consent might still need to comply "with the statute’s onerous registration requirements," he said. But litigation brought by Ecommerce Marketers Alliance against Texas and its secretary of state about the lack of a clear consent defense has ended with "an industry-friendly order" that gives companies "powerful ammunition" against telephone solicitation claims. The plaintiffs had filed for a preliminary injunction, and in response, the state took the position that the law in fact should be interpreted to include a defense based on consent, Morales said. The parties then filed a joint motion for dismissal, he noted, and an order last week from the U.S. District Court for Western Texas said businesses operating consent-based text message marketing campaigns are specifically exempted from having to go through the registration step.